It is not a hidden fact that the standard of education has fallen considerably in Nigeria over the decades. Federal and state Governments annual budget in education sector is low compared to what the United Nations and agencies, prescribe. The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organizations (UNESCO) recommended that member nations should earmark four to six per cent of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) or 15 to 20 of public expenditure (annual budget) to fund education. However, UNESCO said “the majority of countries have not yet reached this threshold”.
A lot of the tertiary institutions, primary and secondary schools are grappled with perennial challenges and the agencies that should regulate it- the Nigeria University Commission (NUC) and the Universal Basic Education (UBEC) are not realizing their optimum objectives with education not being a prerogative in the states talk less of the centre. UBEC had a 2-day retreat last week in Lagos with its handlers, the Senate Committee on Education as well as officials of Ministry of Education in attendance. One of the key issues was how to tackle the increasing rate of out-of-school-children amending and strengthening aspects of its laws and that which should punish parents, guardians of the youths that are out of school.
Stakeholders X-ray Issues On Lack of Quality Teachers
In secondary schools, a crucial part of the education value chain is such that the environment and the output it is giving out, impacts on teenagers because of the stage of grooming that they are in. Whatever experience teenage students have in the secondary schools affects them for good or bad for the rest of their lives as it is this stage of adulthood that teenagers are introduced into habits- reading habits, assimilation process habits, eating habits, talent development, drugs and others. Also the quality of teachers who are agents of transformation impacts positively or negatively on their choices of course of study in the tertiary institutions.
Mrs. Olamide Alalade, Proprietress of a private school in Minna, Niger State, weighing on this stated that “the dearth of teachers in Mathematics and English Language stems from the fact that there is no clear vision for this sector. We also need to have a rethink of our processes to navigate the ever changing world”.
Speaking further, Alalade noted that the society tends to look more at immediate gains rather than going through a process of growth adding that both the government and the people need to invest in the education of children as “no matter what we build without a conscious effort to groom and invest in this sector now, there will be no future and whatever has been built will be mismanaged or go to waste.”
Michael Omisore, an educator, teacher-trainer and author of the book, The Fulfilled Teacher, stated that the dearth of teachers in main subjects like Mathematics and English is a “reflection of the poor state of the teaching profession and generally, education in our clime. Those two subjects are the most needed by students, so why are we not having teachers filling the spaces and meeting the demands? I deal with hundreds of schools and school owners across the country and many have asked me one time or another if possibly I knew of a good English Language teacher they could employ, some going as far as offering accommodation for such teachers. Why are we not having professionals rushing such an offer when we have many unemployed graduates of NCE, Polytechnic and University that studied Maths or English, or related courses?
“The reason is three-fold forming a vicious and undesirable cycle that we have to break away from if we really want to arrest the down-spiraling of the teaching profession around here.
Teachers’ Remuneration
The cliché, ‘A Teacher’s Reward Is In Heaven’ aptly puts this situation in perspective. Michael Omisore stated that teachers deserve a better wage that takes care of their peculiar challenges.
“As many may want to think, sizing the teacher’s job up as low paying as many do is a major problem in our society. But I always beg to differ when it comes to remuneration, because your wage corresponds to your perceived worth. If you are employed as an English teacher on an agreement of N50,000 pay per month, that is your perceived worth according to that employer at that time. If you take the job and in one year or two, you offer much higher value, the perception begins to change, and if the school owner refuses to scale things up to your new perceived worth, you are free to look for job somewhere else and go with the experience you have garnered to find another school that can pay you, say N75,000 and on and on, you can keep pushing things up yourself, I mean by the huge value you render. English and Maths teachers are in high demand, and if you are really good, you have a good chance of always being employed with upward review of salary from time to time.
“The second part of the remuneration issue for me is the tight box that teachers have unduly put themselves, reckoning teaching only as a job, and not a career. How erroneous, and it baffles me when teachers now come around to want to compare themselves with engineers, accountants, doctors, lawyers, when they see their profession as a job only and not as career as well How do I know many teachers are not seeing it as career? When all they see is the salary, and not the opportunities the job offers them to grow their potential to an optimum level, so they can attract opportunities to solve more problems and earn more. In the numerous opportunities I have had training teachers; I let them know they can grow their career to a level that their salary just go into their savings, because of other wells they have opened up in the education space.”
Corroborating the poor remuneration, Olamide Alalade tasked the handlers of the educational sector at all levels to work out forging a reasonable salary structure for teachers and added that attention should be given to schools in remote areas: the inner towns, communities and villages as “this is where government’s policy, vision for the sector comes into play. What we have now is part time teachers in Mathematics and English and so the output doesn’t and will never measure up with those who are permanent. Why do we have Part-time Mathematics, English teachers In Schools? We see more teachers approaching schools to be on part time because of remuneration but with part time, there will be no time on the teacher’s part to help struggling students, treating their gaps. With part time, the teacher’s attention is divided going from school to school or being bothered about another business engagement. It is better to have full time Mathematics or English teachers it will help improve the academic performance of our children,” says Alalade.
Proliferation of Schools
Alalade also noted that the proliferation of schools has also affected the output students get from schools adding that some schools run for profit rather than for impact.
“One would think that we would be better as a country because of the saying ‘ the more, the merrier’. If a school doesn’t have goals and expectations for teachers in these subjects these teachers will just concentrate on some students in the class and leave the others. We have also realized that as more children go into schools, learning isn’t happening. The few hands are being spread thin in an ever growing population. Are there measures or statistics that show that the number of educators produced yearly in our nation is enough to cope with the demands of learners across our country? No! We have schools that have become dumping grounds for the incompetents. In recent developments, we had 50% of Jamb scores below 200 because some schools run for profit rather than for impact. Let schools with integrity run. We must avoid lowering standards because we have incompetent hands in this system. Provision follows vision and not the other way round. What we don’t inspect, people don’t respect!
No Value Placed On the Teaching Profession
Omisore noted that competency is needed if we are to have quality teachers that will impact on the students.
“The second part-reason for me is the poor state of teaching. One of my training manuals The A, B, C, D and E of Effective Teaching deals with this. A is for Adaptability, B is Bonding, C is Competence, D is Diligence and E is Exposure. Competence being the C here is at the centre of it all. It is the fulcrum of the teachers’ endeavour in teaching delivery. Many teachers are not striving to be competent and they so conveniently blame it all on low remuneration. The third reason for the vicious cycle stems from the first and second, and it is the laxity generally around the teaching profession due to incompetence and poor perception. So, you find our college of education filled with low-grade students as bright young students are not interested on teaching. Even the college of education seems not to be offering the best because not much attention is paid to them. You also find teaching being the last resort for graduates who don’t have the passion and dexterity to teach, and they are not ready to develop such, because they are only teaching to meet daily critical needs. Then you also find school owners not ready to pay so much because of how they have perceived teachers generally as average set of professionals, of course with some exceptions.
Alalade pointed out that Nigeria has dearth of teachers not only for Mathematics and English Language but in all subjects. “How many of our children want to be teachers? How many parents want their children to be teachers? How many schools or higher institutions are training with a mindset of making children love teaching and want to be one? We must upgrade the welfare and package of teachers to look like that of bankers and those in oil sector as this will change the way we see teachers and you will sieve the chaff from the wheat concerning competence. We are training our children to have white collar jobs and so, if we don’t quickly correct this, the dearth of teachers in these two subjects will worsen. We must have a plan to start resetting the plan to change the perception of the young ones. We must start early and have an intentional plan not just for now but for the future to have more and capable hands in this profession. There must be a way this is wrapped up in the curriculum just like we have entrepreneurship in the curriculum. My question is who or what is going to teach our grandchildren if there is no continuity plan in view? What you don’t place value on, you can’t attract!”
Parental Involvement
“This is another major aspect of the dearth of teachers in English and Mathematics. Parents want their children to be taught but don’t want their children to be teachers. We all know why. Some parents no longer pay attention to their children’s performances early giving room for whoever is in teaching their children to do as they wish only to get to SS2 and then parents become suddenly aware of the fact that their children want to write exams and at this point, it’s too late. Parents must be willing to put their money where their mouth is. They must plan to pay what excellent education is worth, not too much but what it is worth. If you don’t want your young graduate to be paid peanuts, then pay more to get the best set of teachers for your child or grandchildren.”
Innovating Via The Digital Space
The proprietor from Niger State stated that technology can be leveraged to tackle the dearth of teachers as we are in the digital era and Nigeria, the society at large must make the best of the opportunity.
“The future of educational development is to invest in the digital space and that will need funding as there are no two ways to get anything of quality. Schools, parents and others across Nigeria must fight to ensure that all children from primary to secondary schools have a tablet at least. Rather than fighting for palliatives, push for every child to have a gadget in your community and class notes, additional studies on different subjects are sent to students ahead of the classes. Students should come to class majorly for discussions cutting away unnecessary stress on teachers in copying notes on the board. The digital space gives children the opportunity to learn much more and to eventually perform excellently in these key subject areas. In addition, if there are no real time teachers, there can be virtual teachers, medium by which our children can still learn. It looks like Nigeria is always trying to catch up with the world because we are always quick to criticize change. The machine age is here!
Conclusion
Omisore noted that the problems aforementioned are inter-related making the falling standard of education to be a cycle. He advocated for better remuneration and system to train and recruit quality teachers. “Teachers cannot give their best because of low pay, as a result they demonstrate incompetence, and based on that, they are perceived as average and low, and inferior to other professionals. To break away from this vicious cycle, one thing is needed: the teaching professional in our country must be rebranded. That will be the solution to the problems with teaching, even the dearth of Maths and English teachers,” Omisore stated.
Alalade also noted that passion is needed in the profession as a lot of teachers are in there because of what they can get only. “In conclusion, no matter how high salary and welfare package is, we need honest and passionate people as teachers, educationists, entrepreneurs, leaders that would be willing to invest in this sector not for gain but for impact. The future starts now,” says Olamide Alalade.